


take my seat

by Gone_by_dawn



Series: 100 ways to say... criminal minds [8]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2019-12-27 03:29:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18295940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gone_by_dawn/pseuds/Gone_by_dawn
Summary: Reid reflects on his relationship with Derek, worried he's reading more into the situation than is actually there. JJ and Garcia are there to convince him that Derek is very much infatuated, and it's not all in his head. It takes a bit of work, but he gets there.





	take my seat

**Author's Note:**

> ”Flirting,” Garcia said, at the same time. “They’ve been flirting and not admitting that they both have feelings and need to talk about their feelings.” She took one of JJ’s fries and jabbed it in Reid’s direction. JJ, who was down a considerable amount of fries since the conversation began, subtly tried to move her bag to her other side. “I expected this from Derek, 187, but not from you.”
> 
> Spencer pouted. “What if he doesn't actually like me? Maybe he’s just being nice, you know?”
> 
> The girls protested. _“Of course he likes you,”_ they said, and _“Don’t be ridiculous,”_ and _“You oblivious disaster of a man”._

So, here was the thing: Reid and Morgan had technically gone on a date. Two, if you counted Gideon's wedding. Morgan had asked him to dinner, and he had said yes, and they'd gone. Simple. Easy. Done. The  _problem_ was that they hadn't really talked about it, after that. In fact, Reid was starting to wonder if he'd misread the entire thing. Which was possible, true, but he'd always had a good memory, and he remembered what Morgan had said before they left:  _"me and you are going out tonight"._ It sounded like an invitation to go on a date. Reid had thought it'd been a date. Had it not been a date?

"Spence, are feeling alright?"

It took him a moment to register he was being spoken to. He blinked a few times in surprise, pulled from his thoughts by the question. In front of him, JJ was staring at him, concerned. A limp fry dangled from her fingers, probably meant to be pointing at him but failing on all accounts as it instead curved towards the ground. She brought it to her mouth as she waited on a response. 

"Fine," he said. Penelope, sitting on JJ's right, scoffed.

" _'Fine'_ doesn't normally include people frowning off into space there, G-Man," she said, in that quick, tight tone of voice that usually came when she was worried. It made him uncomfortable to be making the two blondes uncomfortable, so he found himself straightening his back in an attempt to seem more put together. 

"Sorry," he said, and the two were still frowning. 

"Don't be," JJ said at the same time Garcia said "Tell us what's going on."

He didn't particularly want to do that, but he obliged anyway, snatching one of JJ's fries. The three sat in the breakroom, affectionally known to Reid as The Room With Coffee, eating Five Guys and catching up. The case they'd been working on for the last few days had finally come to a close, but the flight home had only been an hour, meaning they'd arrived back at Quantico at 2:30 and, well, it wasn't like they could head home five hours early on a Tuesday when there was still technically work left to be done. As a general rule, though, the team didn't take new cases on the same days they solved one.  Which left JJ, Penelope, and Reid time for a lunch break.

"Well, I mean, it's just that things between me and Derek right now are... confusing. I was just thinking about it," he started, trailing off awkwardly. He didn't feel right talking about Derek to them, partly because it was personal and inappropriate for work, but mostly because he didn't want to complain about their friend to them. But, still, if anyone could help, it was these two.

"Oh honey," Garcia drawled. 

JJ said "What do you mean confusing? Did something happen?"

"No!" he said quickly. "No, that's the problem. We went on a date, I think, and then nothing happened and now I'm wondering if maybe I was misreading the entire thing."

JJ and Garcia shared a look. The two seemed to be arguing silently, and Reid felt a bit out of the loop. 

"Okay," JJ said, slowly, like she was presenting the opening to a case. "It was definitely a date. Let's start there. You're talking about that dinner you two had about a month ago, right? "

"Nine weeks."

Penelope exhaled. "Jesus."

"Okay," JJ said again, but this time didn't have anything to follow it with. She took a bite of her burger.

"Well, we can work with this!" This was Penelope. She'd forced her voice to sound cheerful, or maybe that's just how she actually talked. Reid didn't feel very cheerful, but he was willing to be persuaded. "So you went on a date with Derek. This was approximately two months ago. Then... oh! Gideon's wedding!"

The three collectively winced at the mention of Gideon, but Penelope barreled through as if she hadn't noticed.

"He took you to that, remember?" Of course Spencer remembered. He remembered everything, especially things that had to do with Morgan. "You guys danced and he kept making eyes at you the whole night." She stopped here to wiggle her brows suggestively at Reid.

"He danced with everyone," he said, instead of a real response. "And besides, Gideon's wedding didn't have dates. Doesn't count."

"Didn't know you were picky," JJ teased. Spencer glared and stole another fry. “Alright, I’m sorry, but are you seriously telling me that you and Derek haven’t talked about your dates at all? What have you two been doing?”

”I don’t know,” he said.

”Flirting,” Garcia said, at the same time. “They’ve been flirting and not admitting that they both have feelings and need to _talk_ about their feelings.” She took one of JJ’s fries and jabbed it in Reid’s direction. JJ, who was down a considerable amount of fries since the conversation began, subtly tried to move her bag to her other side. “I expected this from Derek, 187, but not from you.”

Spencer pouted. “What if he doesn't actually like me? Maybe he’s just being nice, you know?”

The girls protested. _“Of course he likes you,”_ they said, and _“Don’t be ridiculous,”_ and _“You oblivious disaster of a man”_.

”What’s not to like,” Garcia comforted, smiling softly and sweetly and Reid wanted to reach forward and hug her. JJ added, “He’s head over heels, Spence, trust us.”

He wasn’t convinced, but the moment had been nice, so he’d smiled thankfully and agreed. If anything, they seemed to be relieved by that, and he considered it a win. He’d be so lost without those two in his corner.

”Lunch date without me?” a voice asked, approaching their table. The three turned and, lo and behold, there was the man himself, Derek Morgan. With him he brought a bag of takeout and a charming grin and Spencer felt the immediate need to be somewhere else. He was sure that his heart was beating in his throat.

”Oh, we wouldn’t dream of excluding you, sugar. Everyone likes a room with a view,” Penelope flirted, batting her eyelashes. Derek moved to pull up a chair, smile wide, but Spencer stood, grabbing everyone’s attention.

” **Take my seat** ,” he offered. Three sets of eyes blinked at him. He cleared his throat. “I, um, need to talk to Hotch about something anyway, so, uh, here.”

Spencer stepped aside, pulling his chair out for Derek. He didn’t immediately move to take it, probably stunned by Reid’s sudden excuse to leave, but he didn’t pay that any attention. He turned around and practically fled the room before anyone could say another word.

”Oh,” said Derek, still standing. His body was turned to the space Reid had been occupying a second ago.

Garcia snapped back to reality, clicking her mouth closed. “We have a lot to talk about,” she said, grimly. JJ nodded, eyes wide.

~~~

”Care to tell us what _that_ was all about?”

”Yeah, Reid, what the hell?”

Reid sighed. Again, he was being cornered by JJ and Penelope and, again, it was about Derek. This was becoming a habit. He wasn't sure he was entirely comfortable with that.

"I might've panicked," he said. An admission of guilt.

Penelope widened her eyes comically big, in a  _'yeah no shit_ ' kind of look. "Might've? Homeboy, it took Derek all of two seconds to figure out something was wrong, and only because he was too busy picking his jaw off the floor."

JJ gave Garcia a mildly skeptical look but didn't disagree. "It wasn't exactly subtle, Spence. I mean not knowing where you stand is one thing, but literally leaving as soon as he shows up... that's sending a message, and not the 'please date me' one I think you're trying to give off."

Spencer put his head in his hands. They had ambushed him by the elevators, Penelope and JJ coming from her lair, Reid on his way back from the break room with another cup of coffee. They hadn't seen each other since he had fled the scene earlier at lunch, but he didn't exactly need an IQ of 187 to figure out what they'd been referring to in their interrogation.

"Oh God," he groaned. His fingers massaged at his forehead for a bit, fighting off a headache that had appeared entirely from embarrassment. "What did you tell him?"

"What could we tell him? We had to say _something_ ," Garcia said. Spencer snapped out of his headache instantly, as if it had never even been an issue.

"Penelope," he said carefully, eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"

Before she had time to squeak out an answer--and really, he'd have rather heard it from her first so that he could at least mentally prepare--JJ's eyes caught on something just past his shoulder and Reid's stomach dropped. He only had time to let out the barest of sighs.

"Reid!" Derek said, appearing on his right like he'd been there the whole time. One of his hands came to rest of Spencer's shoulder, squeezing it for a brief second, hard enough that he could feel the other man's strength and make his knees go weak. Derek was smiling, was always smiling, bright and sunny and a little bit urgent. His entire body was positioned towards Spencer. After a moment of just staring at the younger man's face, he seemed to realize that they weren't alone. He grudgingly turned to face his best friends. "Ah, ladies. Mind if I borrow the doctor for a minute?"

Garcia gave Reid an apologetic smile. JJ grinned. "Not at all," she said. They vanished down the hallway, faster than he could blink.

 _Statistically, this is bullshit,_ Reid thought. There was no chance that Derek just happened to be strolling by while they'd been having their conversation. Well, okay, it wasn't  _impossible_. But that, coupled with the instance earlier when he'd shown up just when the trio had been talking about him? It's a hell of a coincidence, and Spencer wasn't sure he believed in those.  _It's a trap_ , his monkey brain thought. Mentally, he scowled. 187 apparently didn't meant shit.

"Hi," he said. It came out softly, and Reid swore some under his breath. He really couldn't have one conversation?

"Hey," Derek said. 

It was an infinitely small comfort that Derek seemed winded as he spoke. It was likely because the man had probably jogged to catch up to him and the girls, when the girls had still been standing by him and not abandoning him to face his crush alone like traitors. Still, some part of his brain unhelpfully supplied that Morgan had never gotten out of breath from a little light running before. He left that up to Reid and Garcia, for the most part.

He cleared his throat. He wasn't sure what to say.

"I'm sorry about earlier, I-" he started. Morgan cut him off.

"Do you want to date me?" Spencer's heart skipped a beat. Or two. He might've stood there, unmoving, un _blinking_ , for what felt like an eternity. Derek, bless him, didn't even seem to notice. He kept staring at Spencer, eyes moving up and down and taking in every inch of his face hungrily, waiting with baited breath for a reaction. Something.  _Anything_. He must have taken too long to provide one, because Derek kept going. Spencer, allowing himself a second to collect his thoughts, noticed how strained his voice was, and how hard it actually was for Derek to be doing this right now. Something warm pooled inside him. "Like actually date me, not go on a date or two and not talk about it. I mean, do you want--do you want to be my _boyfriend_ , and-"

"Yes."

It was barely more than a whisper, but enough to completely silence the both of them. Derek, who must have been doing  _something_ frantically, though he wasn't sure what, finally stilled. Slowly, impossibly slowly, a smile cracked his face.

"Yeah?"

" _Yes,"_ Spencer said again, because he did. Yes _,_ he wanted to date Derek and go on dates together and talk about them afterwards and be his boyfriend. _Yes_.

The elevator dinged. A woman stepped off, someone who wasn't with their unit. Neither of them _needed_ to get on the elevator--they weren't waiting for it, after all--but they did anyway. Morgan, grabbing Spencer's wrist, just walked right on with all the confidence in the world, as if he had meant for this to happen. As the doors slid to a close, he made his move.

"Good, _"_ he said.

He brought a hand up to cup Spencer's jaw, rubbing a thumb along it for a brief moment before tugging him closer. One hand landed tentatively on his hips, but Spencer couldn't pay it any attention because at that same second Derek's lips were on his and his hand was tilting his head upwards and Spencer could barely even  _think_. On reflex alone was he able to bring up his own arms, choosing to throw them both around Derek's neck and pull the pair as close as possible in the limited space between their bodies. They shuffled backwards a step, trying to balance out the sudden force, and accidentally pressed a random floor in the process. It didn't matter.

When they finally had to pull apart for air, and trust them, it took _a_   _minute_ , they had just enough time to separate themselves to a slightly more appropriate distance before the doors dinged open a second time. By some stroke of luck, it wasn't Hotch or Rossi or Strauss that stepped on, but Kevin. Kevin, the oblivious, gloriously socially awkward techie who completely and utterly missed the thick sexual tension in the elevator. It was a small miracle, and Spencer found himself having to hide a grin.

"Oh, hey guys," he said, big, goofy smile in place. It was his signature Kevin style.

"Hi Kevin," they chorused. Behind his back they shared a fond look.

When the elevator got back to their floor, Kevin was the first to get out. Derek, following right behind Kevin, half-turned to face Reid and gave him a teasing  _call me_  hand motion. Spencer, of course, was obligated to roll his eyes at such antics, but really was rather pleased. Obviously he was going to call, what else was he to do? Well, work, for one. It was still Tuesday, and he still had a job. But after that? That boy was his.

He stepped off the elevator.

**Author's Note:**

> bc im curious and i think most of y'all reading this have read the other ones, which has been ur fav so far? asking for a friend ;) Also i never claimed to be good at slowburns, and yes ik this is moving kinda fast. I can't control it, the story does what it wants and i just type


End file.
